Mr. Sadanand Jakhade

Mr. Sadanand Jakhade is a retired instructor Pilot of the Indian Air Force and former Chief Aviator & Director Training of a premier Technical Research Organisation. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy at Pune & the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington, India. He holds an MSc (Defence and Strategic Studies) from Madras University & a PGD in HRM.

A veteran Instructor Pilot, Indian Air Force with diverse operational experience on six different Fixed Wing Aircraft including heavy lift IL-76 MD, he was part of the first batch of pilots to operationalise Air-to-Air refuelling in India. He is a multiskilled experienced Internal Pilot/Mission Commander on Medium altitude long endurance UAVs. Besides an instructor, amongst his many assignments, he has flown VVIPs including President & PM of India, been part of many important acquisition projects including design review of AWACs and was part of the initial Civil Aviation Regulation Drafting Committee for Drone operations in India.

Mr. Sadanand Jakhade has extensive knowledge in Drone related domains, seeks to work with end users and contribute to ‘Atmanirbharta’, discovering concepts & converting them into unique products. These include but are not limited to Drone tech solutions with Autonomous, semi-autonomous or tethered drones, SWARMs & Collaborative tasks with AUV/UUV/UAS in Modern battlefield using AI/ML/Networking & Data management and Cyber Security.